Micky Mellon Pre Swindon Town

1 October 2016

ShrewsWeb

The Gaffer talks to the press ahead of this weekend's game

Swindon Town are the visitors to the Greenhous Meadow on Saturday.
The Wiltshire based club currently sit just two points above Town in the League One table and a win on Saturday could lift Town back into mid table.
Manager Micky Mellon admits that it will be a difficult game, but one that the players are looking forward too.
“Swindon will be another tough game,” Micky told ShrewsWeb
“They like to play football the right way and we will be hoping to put our mark on the game. They play a similar formation and style to us and they like to free up the spare man in the back three and build from the back.
“But, on the flip side, it’s important that when they do free up the spare man, I hope that people see that we accept that sometimes that is going to happen, but off that next pass it’s important that to-a-man, we anticipate that next pass and we go and try and press that ball aggressively and try and win it back.”
“It’s important that we do that in order regain possession and allow us to play our own game, and if we can do that then we can make it difficult for them as well.”

Town are unbeaten in their last two games and a win on Saturday could see Town pick up 5 points in a week. Micky acknowledged that the team needed to start winning games, but believed that club had made big strides forward.
“Everybody judges on results and I know it’s a cliché, but it’s a results driven business,” admitted Micky.
“At the end of the day you have to win games of football. Of course we as coaches have to look at it and the performance has to be consistent in order to give yourselves a good chance of winning.
“The job of the coach is to get on the training ground and give his players the best opportunities of winning games by finding a system or way of playing that gives you a good chance of doing that.
“There’s never any guarantees in football. Nobody is guaranteed to win a game in football, but our job is to try and consistently give ourselves a good chance of doing that. I think we’ve been doing that.
“I think we’ve been consistently in every game that we’ve taken part in. And I would argue with anybody that the performances have been very close and very tight with anybody that we’ve played against.
“And, as happens when two teams come up against each other in this division, it is usually one or two moments that decide the games. Which again is very frustrating, but it’s a massive improvement on last year, because I can show you, not just two moments, but a half where we weren’t in the race.
“I’ve got to acknowledge that and although being frustrated about it, acknowledge it and just keep trying to do the things that we believe gives us an opportunity to give us a better chance of winning games. Cut out the errors, do the bits that we know we’ve got to get better at and just get what everybody wants and that’s a winning team,” added Micky.

Micky confirmed that Shaun Whalley’s injury from Tuesday night was as bad as first feared and admitted it was a blow to lose the inform midfielder.
“He’s popped his calf, so he’s going to be between four and six weeks, which is a big blow to us,” Micky said.
“The reasons why we keep controlling certain areas of the pitch is so that we can get Shaun Whalley into positions, like we were doing the other evening, into dangerous positions high up the pitch, to go do what he did.
“So, he can get turned and he looks dangerous and he gets fans on the edge of his seat and he’s getting shots at goal and the ‘keepers making good saves and he’s also laying other people in. But, he’s good at retaining the ball at that end of the pitch.
“So, the very reasons why we were keeping the ball to try and get him up the pitch, to do what we were doing, we have to now find another way or another person who can do that now. But, I believe that within the group we will have that.
“But, we want that control, so I think my message as well is don’t ask us to get it forward too quickly. I don’t think we are a team that is able to do that unless we can retain the ball in that area. That is what we are trying to do.
“We are actually doing very well at it, we are keeping the ball in certain areas so that we can get the ball into the forward areas with quality rather than just lumping it forward.”